Prince George's County Film Festival: developing an ecosystem supporting digital media production

Compared to Sundance, Cannes, or the Toronto International Film Festival among others, hearing that Prince George's County, Maryland has launched an annual film festival might sound like a joke ("With film festival, Prince George’s makes a bid for the silver screen," Washington Post).  

I think it's a great idea.

From the article:

Prince George’s County didn’t feel like a place to make movies when actress Kike Ayodeji grew up. She loved film festivals, but she had to drive to D.C. and Philadelphia or fly to Los Angeles to reach them. The first film to represent Prince George’s that came to mind for her was a 2020 documentary about the county’s long list of accomplished basketball players.

By the time it debuted, a once-modest local community of directors and performers had grown considerably, backed by the county’s film office, which opened in 2013. The documentary film dubbed Prince George’s a “Basketball County.” Now, these artists think Prince George’s can be a county for filmmakers, too.

They will make that pitch at the Prince George’s Film Festival, the first county-sponsored film festival running this week from Thursday to Sunday. To the county’s filmmakers, it’s an underdog story fit for Hollywood. Next to the iconic scenes of the District, Prince George’s traditionally attracted little attention from large film and TV productions.

Creating a media production community.  In "Revisiting stories: cultural planning and the need for arts-based community development corporations as real estate operators" (2018, original piece 2009) I distinguish between between arts as consumption (going to museums to see art produced by dead people) and arts as production (people producing art and design products), and quote from a paper by John Montgomery on the development of multifaceted arts districts (Montgomery [2003], "Cultural Quarters as Mechanisms for Urban Regeneration. Part 1: Conceptualising Cultural Quarters," Planning, Practice & Research, 18:4).

As pointed out in the Post article, if you want to develop a functioning if not thriving film community, you need to support its development, and a film festival is an element that does.  

Another way to think about this is in terms of what the book Strategic Marketing for Not For Profit Organizations calls publics. The author says all organizations have three publics:

the input public that gives you resources; the throughput public that does that work; and the output public to whom your efforts are addressed.

In terms of media production (film, television, digital), the throughput public is the group of people: writers; producters; directors; production staff; actors; etc., that do the work.  

It's also a way to promote local theaters and spaces within the county ("Mount Rainier aims to recapture the Kaywood Theater as a cultural anchor," 2018) and even open air community film events ("Utah Film Society Summer Film series a deep dive of documentaries on public lands issues") that don't have to exclusively focus on fun entertainment type films.

 

Although that's not what the festival is doing, at least initially. It's only showing films at National Harbor and Bowie State University. National Harbor provides some glitz whereas the Publik Playhouse does not...

Montpellier France trams, livery design by Christian Lacroix 

Creating a community that is design forward.  In my series of articles on how to leverage the Purple Line light rail program, I suggest that the Purple Line can be utilized to "to rebrand Montgomery and Prince George's Counties as Design Forward."

This film festival can be an element of such a strategy.

Leveraging community cable and other public facilities to support digital media production.  In "What would be a "Transformational Projects Action Plan" for DC's cultural ecosystem" one of the points is that DC could way better leverage its community cable networks, the way that New York City does.  No reason why PGC can't do it, even if DC won't.  From that piece:

29.  Reposition and relaunch city operated cable channels as a network comparable to what NYC does with "NYC Life" which has great programming, and a locally produced equivalent of CSPAN's BookTV and "American History TV" programming on weekends.

There are tons of great presentations all the time in DC.  By capturing them on film they can reach broader and bigger audiences.

Boston Central Library broadcast studio.  Image from Boston Magazine.

30.  Create broadcast studios for tv and radio at the Central Library.  WGBH-TV does this in Boston ("WGBH studio and cafe to open at Boston Public Library," Boston Globe).

Separately, I've argued that public radio stations like WPFW-FM could be co-located at the Central Library, comparable to  KCPW-FM in Salt Lake City.

31.  Add broadcast capabilities to cultural facilities around the city including library branches and university auditoriums.  This would support programming on a "DC Life" channel comparable to NYC Life and CSPAN.

BRIC has created a studio at the Coney Island branch of the Brooklyn Library system.  A radio station and recording studio is located in the Montreal North cultural and community center library facility. 

 

From "Neighborhood libraries as nodes in a neighborhood and city-wide network of cultural assets":

 

The Chicago Public Library has a teen recording studio called YOUmedia.  The renovation plans for the South Shore Branch include a YouMedia studio and recording facility ("South Shore Library Set To Get $2.5 Million Upgrade With New Recording Studio And More," Block Club Chicago).

 

The Helsinki (Finland) Library System has two especially innovative programs. Library 10, a special library focused on music and culture, started as a program located in the city's multi-functional  CableFactory arts center, but has since been relocated to a different site. In addition to its book and media collection, the library provides space and equipment for the production and presentation of independently-produced work.

Meetingpoint is an experimental library without books, which provides technical assistance and guidance for digital communications and living in a digitally-connected society. Meetingpoint also develops digital communications platforms for organizations, with a focus on civic participation. 

Both programs have extended hours, open as early as 8am and close as late as 10pm. Both programs are seen as models for helping to develop new ways of developing programs, organizing space, and serving patrons for the new Central Library.

Another media specific but non-library program that should be reviewed for ideas includes the Podcast Garage in Boston ("The Podcast Garage celebrates a year," Boston Globe)